Alpha

I have a confession to make: I’ve known about the Destiny Alpha for a few months now. Let’s say a friend managed to get a code and under the strictest of secrets, he downloaded it. What I saw at first didn’t impress me. There wasn’t much content. There were just interesting concepts. I saw people trying to drive their hover bikes up a dirt ramp and people engaging in missions that I didn’t have the backstory to. But that’s quickly accelerated into something special over the past few weeks.

I was checking out the beta myself and discovered that the world had fleshed out a bit. Random people helped me out and went on their way. At E3 2014, Bungie offered more details about the Destiny universe, and suddenly, like an epiphany, I realized the scope the creators of Halo were working with. An entity called the Traveler, which was discovered on Mars ignited a golden age of humanity as people started colonizing the solar system. That all ended as beings called the Forsaken attacked, interrupted a thriving civilization and made it wilt.

Destiny puts players in the role of guardians, who still have the light of the Traveler, and they have to defend humanity’s last city against this alien force. The premise puts players at the center of the narrative and gives purpose to the missions I was seeing and playing.Continue Reading →

It’s hard to believe that there’s a third Army of Two game coming out. It makes you wonder how this happens. The premise of the franchise has always been rock solid. The buddy co-op experience is smart in concept; it was the execution that was always off.

The problem is that the series never found the right tone between the two protagonists — Salem and Rios. The first game was an action flick with frat house humor. In the sequel, Army of Two: The 40th Day, EA Montreal took a more serious, brooding tack, taking the pair on a dark journey in Shanghai.

The latest entry, Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel, seems more like a reboot of sorts. First off, there are two new protagonists Alpha and Bravo. They’re rookies working for Salem and Rios. The adventure takes place in Mexico as the newly assembled team are looking for kidnapped women across the border.

Raise your hand if you knew that Obsidian Entertainment was working on another game? Call me clueless but I, for one, was surprised. The last Obsidian game I played was Knight of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, which was all right, not great. Anyway, the developer down in Santa Ana is now working on Alpha Protocol and we just got over a couple of screen shots of its spy game.

Overall, the concept sounds interesting with a little Bioware-ish touch. Players take on the role of CIA field agent Michael Thornton in this role-playing game. He’ll get to use spy gadgets and have different responses when dealing with people. It certainly looks promising. I don’t think I’ve ever played a spy RPG. Most of the time they’re usually fantasy fare.